Sketch like a haiku
Urban and rural sketching function as a kind of reporting, an account of what’s around us. Urban sketchers stand still and observe where others move on without consideration. Whether drawn or written, the images must be directly observed everyday objects or occurrences.
— from ‘The Art of Urban Sketching’ by Gabriel Campanario
Connecting seemingly disparate things
Sketching en plein air is en vogue. I would dare to compare its current popularity to the growing number of practitioners of the Japanese haïku. Not surprisingly they share a similar approach to what surrounds us daily. Just take a closer look at their results: they are discrete, often created unprepared and evoking images based on nature/reality. A haïga connects them even more in that it combines a haïku with an image and connects spatial representation with storytelling.
Recently such work by well known haiku poet Matsuo Basho was discovered in Japan. The subtle brush work of the sketch in the bottom left corner and the calligraphy of the poem on the right are a fine example.
Urban sketchers are not interested in creating art for art’s sake as much as haïku poets are not aspiring for the next New York Times bestseller. Both practitioners are in my observation discrete and ‘in it’ for the experience. They share an earthy enjoyment of life and draw their inspiration from directly observed everyday objects or occurrences.
No one travels
Along this way but I,
This autumn evening.
— Matsuo Bashō
The Spirit of Place
For some time I have been posting my urban sketches on flickr. Sharing your work is an important part of being an urban sketcher and the community is very rewarding. Sketches rarely pass without comments. It inspired and motivated me to add a little story or anecdote that describes the place and situation in which the drawing was made. Even throwing in some travel and restaurant tips from time to time! Unexpectedly this social side has grown more important for me over time. Attaching my sketch to a pin on a map was but the first step. Trying to show and experience more through a sketch than the tourist postcard in the interface next to it was a challenge that would change my way of working and exactly what I was looking for. Drawing on the wisdom of the haiku has been very helpful.
Then I read Maps of the Imagination by Peter Torchi …
Let me quote from this book to illustrate the relationship between drawing on site, online maps, prose and social networks:
Maps create reality, they make sense of the world, make it legible. We get an idea of where or how high something is but we hardly come to grips with how the place really ‘is’. We need a more prosaic approach.
L’esprit du lieu (Spirit of place) as the French say. With sketches and journal entries you can fill in this prosaic approach easily.
The evolution of representation and storytelling: from subject-centred and the existential journey of the traveller, into the new relationship to the totality through compass and GPS-systems to the seemingly unrepresentable totality which is social.
Through social networks, check-in and live posting on mobile phones we can build this new relationship to the totality. “Discovering the world one sketch at a time” is the credo of many urban sketchers. Eventually over time the author of the image will gradually become less important and the work will be part of something much bigger than just his oeuvre.
Remove the character from the familiarity of home and its own geographies and place them in unknown geography as a discoverer.
Discovering is what it’s all about. Putting it on paper with all senses present and sharing the experience as widely as possible is probably the best summary of what a carnet de voyage should embody.
More on Maps of the Imagination and its author Peter Turchi can be found on his website.
